Mysterious NDI+OBS Problem

[badneck]

Hey so I've been stuck using NDI for about a month while I allocate some funds for a capture card. Log files will not help you guys here as my problem is this: I run scan converter on my gaming pc and send it through my router to my stream pc which uses plain ole OBS, but somewhere along the way the NDI signal gets all choppy; not like dropped frames, it's as if the stream was freezing for one second every 15 seconds. The funny part is that this DOESN'T seem to happen unless I have the stream running, like the OBS preview before going live looks PERFECT. Everything is gigabit so I don't know why it would be my bandwidth.

Please help,
Patrick

 

[badneck]

FYI my monitor is 144hz if that makes a difference.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

sounds like a possible networking issue. Is that a consumer router? Do you KNOW it can handle all the traffic going through it, with any rules/processes in place that may come into play during a stream?

 

[BensTechLab]

It could also be that the streaming PC can't keep up with the load decoding the NDI and then encoding for stream output. What are the specs on this streaming machine? Discrete graphics or onboard graphics? You might want to download "HwINFO64" free hardware monitoring app which can monitor CPU load AND GPU load while streaming (I picked this one because you can also integrate it with a StreamDeck to show your CPU and GPU load live on the StreamDeck while streaming).

As an example on my Microsoft Surface Pro 5 the GPU (not CPU) would get pinned 100% by having certain open browser tabs in the background, leaving no GPU left for OBS (I'm guilty of leaving dozens of browser tabs open in the background that I intend to go back to later).

So ideally the streaming PC has nothing else running on it (no open browsers or anything) - but you could still be pinning the GPU/CPU with OBS alone if its an older PC that you are re-purposing for streaming, has no discrete graphics, has a lot of overlays/effects in OBS, etc. HwINFO64 will let you watch for any maxed out resources (can monitor memory usage also + CPU + GPU).

 

[badneck]

It could also be that the streaming PC can't keep up with the load decoding the NDI and then encoding for stream output. What are the specs on this streaming machine? Discrete graphics or onboard graphics? You might want to download "HwINFO64" free hardware monitoring app which can monitor CPU load AND GPU load while streaming (I picked this one because you can also integrate it with a StreamDeck to show your CPU and GPU load live on the StreamDeck while streaming).

As an example on my Microsoft Surface Pro 5 the GPU (not CPU) would get pinned 100% by having certain open browser tabs in the background, leaving no GPU left for OBS (I'm guilty of leaving dozens of browser tabs open in the background that I intend to go back to later).

So ideally the streaming PC has nothing else running on it (no open browsers or anything) - but you could still be pinning the GPU/CPU with OBS alone if its an older PC that you are re-purposing for streaming, has no discrete graphics, has a lot of overlays/effects in OBS, etc. HwINFO64 will let you watch for any maxed out resources (can monitor memory usage also + CPU + GPU).

Hey man sorry I just saw this! lol
Anyways, it's not do to any sort of rendering lag on either end. I've checked log files time and time again and there's virtually no rendering or encoding lag, it's a totally capable machine. It seems that changing the monitor from 144hz to 60hz helps but it still "freezes" every 15 seconds or so. I honestly can't figure out what's going on, here's a clip for an example! (I'm actually explaining what I think the problem is in the vid)
It's funny, in the preview in OBS before I start the stream sometimes looks perfect just until I start the stream!!!! so confusing
example: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/687849649

 

[badneck]

sounds like a possible networking issue. Is that a consumer router? Do you KNOW it can handle all the traffic going through it, with any rules/processes in place that may come into play during a stream?

Hey for some reason I just got all the notifications from this thread today! It's an Archer A7 and I'm not sure how to check any of the rules/processes that you're talking about. If you could explain how to check I'll let you know right away.

Thanks!